The proliferation of subscription television programming, the increasing number of available channels, and the corresponding increase in television programming have led to continued development of various user interactive features. Exemplary features may include the ability to set timers to record programs, the ability to set user preferences, for example, for how information is displayed, and the ability to lock or otherwise control access to channels. In particular, systems and methods have been developed that allow a user to control the display of a program through functions such as pause, play, rewind, fast forward, replay, slow, etc.
In addition to providing program information, a service provider (e.g., a digital broadcast service provider) may provide one or more channels that present multiple feeds for different programs. For example, programs carried by multiple channels may be presented on a selected channel to provide the user with a simultaneous display of multiple programs. For example, “a sports mix,” a “news mix,” a “guide channel” or a menu for selecting pay-per-view programming may be envisioned as the selected channel. The user may be able to select an audio feed corresponding to any one of the displayed channels, or a periodic rotation between the audio feeds may be implemented, either with or without user input. In general, the selected channel is preset at the head end (e.g., at the service provider) with the programs of certain channels to be displayed and the audio is selected at the client-side (e.g., using a STB, DVR, etc.).
Such an approach may be useful to provide the user with a simultaneous presentation of related programs, such as programs being displayed on related channels, including (for example) sports channels, news channels and/or movie channels. The user may thus keep abreast of multiple channels of interest and/or may be provided with the opportunity to view and select one of the group of displayed channels and thus view only the selected program. For example, the user may be provided with multiple feeds on a single channel for a particular event, such as the Olympics, so that multiple live programs may be viewed, etc.